Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Agenda for 2/24 (Maroon) and 2/25 (Gold)

1. Review terms - Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism?
  • Ethnocentrism: the idea that your own group or culture is better or more important than others
  • Cultural Relativism: the principle that an individual person's beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture.
2. Ethnocentrism/Cultural Relativism Activity 


Read the following passage:
In 1997, Annette Sorensen, 30, an actress from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Exavier Wardlaw, 49, a movie production assistant from Brooklyn, NY, were arrested for leaving their 14-month-old daughter outside a Manhattan restaurant on a chilly day while they ate inside the restaurant. They left the child in her baby carriage on the sidewalk. Many passersby called 911 to alert the police. New York authorities took the child away from her parents and temporarily placed her in foster care.

In an ensuing article in the New York Times, one Danish commentator observed that leaving a baby outside of a restaurant is a very common practice in Denmark. The commentator wrote, “Often, Danish parents. . . leave their babies outside. For one thing, Danish baby carriages are enormous. Babies ride high above the world on horse-carriage-size wheels. It’s hard to get such a carriage into a cafe. . . . Besides, Danish cafes are very smoky places.” The commentator continued, “In Denmark, people have an almost religious conviction that fresh air, preferably cold air, is good for children. All Danish babies nap outside, even in freezing weather—tucked warmly under their plump goose-down comforters. . . . In Denmark all children own a sort of polar survival suit that they wear from October to April and they go out every day, even in winter.”
A. What would be an ethnocentric interpretation of the parents’ actions?
 
B. What would be a culturally relative interpretation of the parents’ actions?
3. Prussian Blue


HW - Assignment #6 - Prussian Blue Reflection

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